Mail 2.1 not loading

[Poohtle]

I know many of you are Mac experts, so wondered if you could answer a question my husband has.

He has an iBookG4 Mac OSX 10.3.9 (like I know what all that is!!!)

His Mail 2.1 won't load.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[catrancher]

His Mail 2.1 won't load.

Hmmm... define "won't load".

As in the Mail application won't start up? Or the Mail app starts but his mail doesn't load in the app so that none of his messages show up.

Tom (... more online diagnostics... what fun!)

[Poohtle]

Won't start up.

We haven't used this computer since last Dec, and he has updated all software today.

[catrancher]

Ok. So he clicks on the Mail app icon in the dock, it bounces for a few seconds , and then just quits? Is that correct?

Something he can take a look at would be the "Console" application. It's located in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. Start "Console". On the left hand side of the window, click on "All Messages". Now, try to start mail again. You should (hopefully) get some messages in the console window.

Post what he gets and let's see what it says.

Tom (... console is your friend!)

[Poohtle]

He has looked for a while but doesn't have an 'All Messages' in his Console.

One of the logs says 'Mail can't open library'.

[catrancher]

He has looked for a while but doesn't have an 'All Messages' in his Console.

One of the logs says 'Mail can't open library'.

Is that exactly what it says? Is there anything else? In the meantime, you can try this:

1. Launch "Disk Utility" in the Utilities folder in your Application folder.
2. Select your main disk drive from the list on the left.
3. On the right, select the "First Aid" tab at the top.
4. On the bottom right, select "Repair Disk Permissions" (you can run "Verify Disk Permissions first if you want to see what it will do).

Once that finishes, try launching mail again. Let us know how you make out.

Tom (... we'll see what we can see!)

[Poohtle]

He has done repair, tried to launch mail and gets this in his console.

dyld: /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail can't open library: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/.MacLegacy.framework/Versions/A/D.MacLegacy (No such file or directory, errno =2)

[Poohtle]

Thanks for continuing to help by the way.

[catrancher]

He has done repair, tried to launch mail and gets this in his console.

dyld: /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail can't open library: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/.MacLegacy.framework/Versions/A/D.MacLegacy (No such file or directory, errno =2)

Ok, that's a dynamic loader error message. For whatever reason, it appears that somewhere along the line, the software support libraries for the Mail app have gotten removed/corrupted. Kinda hard to tell how it happened at this point in time. Did someone perhaps try to reinstall some OS stuff sometime and aborted out of it? Just almost impossible to diagnose.

However, it probably can be gotten around or fixed in a couple of different ways.

1. You could upgrade to the latest 10.5 OS. This should fix those issues as well as get you "up to date". Of course, this option would cost money.
2. Make an appointment at the Apple Store with a Mac Genius. They might be able to help get your current OS re-installed. I'm reluctant to suggest trying to do it yourself since I don't know what your technical competency is.
3. Use a different mail client. Something like Thunderbird

These are about the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. Maybe Keith would have some other ideas?

Tom (... when you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!)

[Poohtle]

Thanks so much. He really appreciates the time you have spent.
He will have a look at the options there. He doesn't know how it happened at all.